Birthday Party Is Just the Start of Politicians Ego-centric Spending

PARTYLINE : House Republicans will continue to tackle the country’s fiscal problems by advancing spending cuts and spending reforms, and by charting a new course with a new budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

Before anyone can tote the Partyline, there is a little Birthday Party … according to the Congressional Budget Office, the eleven member the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission has One Million Dollars to spend.

Funny how someone that advocated limited government and decried wasteful government spending needs to have a Centennial Celebration … maybe if President Reagan was alive, it might be warranted, but he died June 4, 2005. The guest of honor will not be there.

At least, Reagan’s Birthday party is a once in a centennial event … but citizens should be questioning how politicians are spending OUR TAXDOLLARS to promote their own.

Case in point : $440,955 spent last year for the Office for Retired Speakers of the House of Representatives

The Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL-14) receives nearly half-a-million dollars every year from taxpayers for an office he rarely visits. The allowance pays for a fully furnished office, staff, franked mail, phone bills, cable, and payments to lease a car. According to one news report, the former Speaker rarely visits the office and his three staff members each earn over $100,000. Adding together fiscal years 2008 and 2009, $879,000 of taxpayer money went toward providing the former Speaker a stipend to maintain an office after leaving Congress. Current law limits the payments to former Speakers to five years after finishing their term as the top-ranking House leader.
Note : Former Senate Majority Leaders do not receive a comparable stipend when they retire.

One can only wonder what those “employees” are doing now … but it is well known how Speaker Hastert was able to influence spending decisions.

For all those members of the TaxEnoughAlready movement, better ask your candidates if they think this reckless Washington spending should consider.

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